Completing The Personal Goals Template
Just like we do for financial and professional goals, we use a template to ensure we do all of the fun things in life we want to do. Because life is more than just working, don’t you agree?
Introduction
While it has taken us a long time to get to this point in the Afterburner Success Partners course, we’ve moved rather quickly from determining and planning our professional goals to planning our personal goals. By now, you are very familiar with the process we are going to use to complete our personal goals template, so let’s just jump in and complete the template.
Completing the personal goals template
The personal goals template is very similar to your now-completed financial and personal goals templates, so logically, the information I’m going to cover is very similar, but there are differences between the templates, so we’ll go over each part of the personal goal template. You can either write the template out by hand or develop a spreadsheet. It’s your choice, and either is adequate except that, over time, it’s more efficient just to update a spreadsheet. So, either get out a clean sheet of paper or open a new spreadsheet in Excel. As I describe the steps to develop and complete the template, I’ll talk in terms of completing it by hand, and if you are using a spreadsheet, you can take the corresponding action in Excel. I store all my electronic documents in appropriately labeled folders and ensure they are backed up regularly.
Draw seven columns from the top of the page to the bottom, leaving about an inch and a half at both top and bottom. Label the top of the document Personal Goals Template. At the bottom, place the word “Notes” on the left. This will include any information you need that may be helpful to you later. Place today’s date on it somewhere. I always try to place the date on any document like this. Over time, it gives you perspective and allows you to track your progress. For example, I’ve updated my goals annually for most of my career, even in retirement (yes, I do!), and it’s quite interesting and satisfying to see my progress over time. As you review them (I do mine twice a year, on July 4 and January 1), you can make notes if you wish. One of the things I hope for is that, when you do this, you will form good habits that your children can observe, who in turn will adopt them. That’s what I did, and then when children develop these good habits and are successful, it’s a proud parent moment. We all want our children, and later in life, our grandchildren, to do well and not struggle.
Ok, let’s develop each column from left to right and label each heading as noted in Bold, below:
Time period-place today’s date directly below the heading. Then, continue below that as follows: 6 months, 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 years. Depending on your age, you may not need all of these. You can add more, for example, 7 and 15, but I would not take any of them away. Then add the word “Retirement” after your last number. After retirement, add the following: +1 year. Then add +3, +10, +20, or more, as appropriate for your planned retirement age. The first column is now complete.
Date-Place a date next to each time period, starting with today. As you begin to complete these, the dates may seem like a long time off, but believe me, they come sooner than you expect. Those dates will occur, whether or not you build goal and achievement plans. The last thing I want for you, which sadly most people experience, is to reach those dates without having completed what you wanted to do in life. That would be sad, and as you get older, you will have regret. I’ve mentioned that I’ve seen many people get to this point, and I feel so sorry for them. Frankly, it’s why I developed the course and established Afterburner Success Partners, so this does not have to happen to you or those you love. I hope I’m pulling at your heartstrings a little bit…
What do I want to do or achieve?-Think about all of the things you came up with during the brainstorming session and then listed on the priority matrix; these will go here. Notice that it is getting a bit more difficult because now that you’ve decided WHAT you want to do, you now have to figure out HOW YOU ARE GOING TO DO IT, WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO DO IT, and HOW YOU ARE GOING TO PAY FOR IT. Yikes!
Now look, I never said any of this was easy, and frankly, it’s why most people don’t plan for what they want to do, not only financially, but professionally and personally. It’s a lot of work to figure all of this out and then make it happen. What I would say to you once you are done with all of this is you are now on your way to the 1% club, and it’s a great place to be!
Cost-I think it goes without saying that once you figure out what you want to do, how you are going to do it, and when you want to do it, we now have to figure out how much it costs and how we are going to pay for it. We’ve previously discussed that low-cost personal goal items can often be absorbed within our normal budget. For example, I like reading and gardening. Even though I buy my books rather than borrowing them from the library, I can afford these simple, inexpensive goals without having to budget for them. There is no real timing required for reading books, but I do have to take into account the seasons when gardening, because gardening is dependent upon the season, and timing is critical. A higher cost personal goal is to buy a new car for my wife, and frankly, since 2022, the prices and availability have been such that we’ve postponed that and just kept our 2006 Acura MDX running. It’s a fantastic vehicle, over 290,000 miles on it, and since it’s long paid for, I’d just like to keep it until we have to do something. But the fact is, she wants something new; she deserves it, and the truth is, I’m getting a little nervous about her driving around in a vehicle this old. So, we likely will be doing something later this year.
How am I going to pay for this?-Ideally, you know about your more expensive goals and can prepare and save to pay cash for them. If you choose to pay with credit, then you’ll have to absorb interest charges, which can reduce the amount you can save toward your financial goals. I’d love to tell you I lived like Dave Ramsey and never had any debt, but I can’t. Just be very careful when going into debt, and it can get away from you. Again, that’s why we plan these things in advance so we can manage them as well as possible.
Action steps Required-What steps will you need to take to do what you want to do? This could include saving $X to buy something, perhaps getting a part-time job, or getting a promotion. Ideally, what happens is that you manage your professional life very well and increase your income over time sufficiently to fund the things you want to do. Remember when we discussed tempering your goals? This is another one of those things you just have to face. While Diane and I have always enjoyed travel and have always traveled, it’s only since we’ve been retired that we’ve really been able to do more than we could when we were working. Not only do we have the time now, but we are also able to afford it.
Remarks-For any additional notes you need to make to yourself
Summary
It may take you a while to complete the personal goals template, just like the previous two. You may need to meet with your mentor or others you trust to talk about it. Caution: As with financial and professional goals, be careful who you discuss your personal goals with. People who don’t have goal plans can become envious, critical, or even seek to subvert you.
Take all the time you need to complete this template. When you do, take a break and congratulate yourself on a job well done. You now have complete goal AND accomplishment plan templates for your financial, professional, and personal goals. Way to go! You might even want to celebrate a bit. You have completed something few people do, and you deserve a celebration! Yea for you!
That’s all for this week!
The Personal Goals Template
Afterburner Success Partners
http://absuccesspartners.com/
What’s in it for me?
If you want to get ahead in life, if you want to achieve your dreams and live your best life, you must take meaningful, deliberate action that follows a proven path. It does not matter if it is a financial professional or personal goal. That’s what we do at Afterburner Success Partners!
Call to Action
Just. Do. Something. Make a decision on what you want or need to do, define the path, and get after it. Do it today.
Recommended Resources
See notes below for either of my books.
Up Next
Completing the personal goals template.
Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
Achieve Your Dreams: A Complete Guide to Live Your Best Life, by David Giustozzi: https://amzn.to/3IxEFgy
Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us, by David Giustozzi: https://amzn.to/437OhVQ